THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPLEX ART FORMS EVER ORGINATED.Not words, nor pictures, nor video can make you understand the Howlett art form. Only by seeing an actual work will you at least understand what it really looks like.

In California I started making mixed media constructions with mirrors and electric light to engage extended depth with "light and space," 1973. I then probably became the first post "California light and space" artist working in optical sculpture.

"A Father of Dichroism in Art." from Glass Art magazine - September/October 2000 See Aritcle

Founder of the "Museum of Dichroic Art," 2007

ARTIST STATEMENT

VISUAL EXPERIENCE.In my artwork, seeing is not believing or knowing. Initially my work strongly engages perception from the viewer. That quickly yields to giving their cognitive understanding a jolt. My art does something that most art does not do; it separates perception from cognition and allows for a transcendental experience to dominate. We are left with a visual mystery that our eyes cannot believe. My work is more about visual experience than perception or understanding.

MY LIGHT AND SPACE IS CONTAINED IN AN ELECTRIC LIGHT SCULPTURE.My strong effects are unlike the 1960's "California light and space" artists that only achieved a subtle effect from working "light and space" into their open environment approach of site-specific installations.

MY APPROACH TO ARTis to work only in an original way, and make my optical art as well developed and memorable as I possibly can. I prefer elegance, found within organic symmetry. I think of my art form as portals: an opening into a new kind of space that can be interactively explored. Whatever one can see inside my transparent glass sculpture is more important that the outside shape. My visuals have a sense of contemporary kaleidoscope art.

EVENTUALLY I DISCOVERED SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS OF "LIFE" IN MY OPTICAL ART.Elements of life include: inner light, inner rhythms, organic symmetry, movement, inner-reflecting-self-awareness, inspiration to interact, mandalas as spiritual circles of life.

I USE TECHNOLOGY MATERIALS DEVELOPED WITHIN MY LIFETIME:Transparent and reflective dichroic color, on float glass; front-surface-aluminum-mirrors; compact-fluorescent lamps; all held together with silicone glue and sheet metal. This is pure art and technology, used in mixed media sculpture and mixed media constructions.

MY OPTICAL ILLUSION ART FORM COULD NOT HAVE BEEN INVENTED AT ANY OTHER TIME IN HISTORY.My main material of dichroic glass color was first used in 1951 as light filters to produce color in movies. Now is the age of technology and some fine art is evolving to take a new, more current, look.

DICHROIC GLASS ART AND TECHNOLOGY, ART AND SCIENCE."Light interference" and "refractive indexes" of minerals are the sciences that our technology uses to make what science calls "optical light filters," known to the art world as "dichroic art glass color."

DICHROIC GLASS COLOR IS NOT A PIGMENT OR A DYE.It is optically controlled wavelengths of light caused from ultra-thin layers of mineral oxides that are deposited onto glass (usually). The coating-deposition-procedure, performed in a specialized vacuum chamber, transforms a sheet of clear glass into a colored transparent mirror that reflects one color, but at the same time transmits the opposite color through the coating and glass. A dichroic coating also causes its color to shift to a slightly different color when the angle of view changes. Dichroic color is art and technology and science creating magic. Only my dichroic sculpture clearly shows all the magical aspects of dichroic coatings simultaneously.

DICHROIC COLOR IS THE NEWEST KIND OF COLOR SINCE 1951.Sometimes when a new material is used in art it leads to a new art movement.

DICHROIC GLASS ART IS AN ORGINAL AMERICAN ART MOVEMENT OF NEW MATERIALS. IT HAS NOW BECOME AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT.The dichroic art movement started in the 1970's in Malibu, California with Murry Schwartz and Ray Howlett. Although it was unorganized and "outsider," it spread. Now there are thousands of artists around the world exploring dichroic glass art. See Article

NOTE:The first artist to work with thin-film coatings was Larry Bell, 1964. However, his coatings were not sophisticated enough to be dichroic. The first dichoric artist was Murry Schwartz, 1969, making windows and small mobiles. Howlett was the second dichroic artist making dichroic light constructions and light sculpture, 1979. Ken Rains was the third dichroic artist making glass sculpture with a dichroic piece bonded to the bottom, early 1980's.

MY LIGHT BOX CONSTRUCTIONS HAVE ONE SPECIAL VIEW, THAT NO OTHER ART IN THE WORLD HAS.When the viewer looks straight into my light box they will see all the contained, reflecting, graphic images align to form an overall circular design. That design contains concentric-geometric-patterns and symmetrical kaleidoscope art effects that result in "op art contemporary mandala." Op art started in early contemporary art. Mandalas originated in ancient religious art of Hinduism, and later Buddhism.

MY OP ART AND MANDALAS ARE VIEWER KINETIC ART.Only viewer movement will cause my electric light images to shift and relocate in position; and the dichroic color will also shift to a slightly different color.

MY OP ART AND MADALAS ARE INTERACTIVE ART.To see all of the art and to fully experience this art-form the viewer must be interactive with the art.

MY VIEWER KINETIC ART IS INTERACTIVE ART AND IS 4D ART.To explore the infinity light and space inside my art form, the viewer enters the fourth dimension, which is defined as a 3D object (the viewer) moving through space and using time to move to explore the art.

DICHROIC ART AND TECHNOLOGY MAKES MY OP ART AND MANDALAS MORE ADVANCED.he infinity light and space inside my transparent art looks larger than the outside 3D size of the art construction. The space inside has been optically expanded beyond normal 3D by using the technology of dichroic glass mirrors and aluminum mirrors to reflect light and space into extended and multiple directions simultaneously, creating the mandala style geometric progressions.

MY INFINITY LIGHT SCULPTURE IS THE MOST ADVANCED OP ART AND MANDALAS IN THE WORLD;Because they use dichroic art and technology, and are viewer kinetic, and interactive, and 4D art.

We can arrange to send an interactive art work for your inspection, if you qualify.